Sony hasn’t had the best of luck with live service games — whether first-party or third-party PlayStation exclusives — and it now has another cause for concern. The company spent $3.6 billion to purchase Bungie at a time Destiny 2 was already thought to be in trouble. Now, it’s increasingly looking like players are moving on from the 7-year-old game en masse.
PlayStation needs Bungie’s next live service game to be a hit
As highlighted by Forbes’ Paul Tassi, Destiny 2’s player count continues to dwindle significantly. The free-to-play game has lost 90% of its player base on Steam since June 2024.
This isn’t too surprising for a game that released in 2017, but the fact remains that Destiny 2 continues to struggle and Bungie itself admitted that the game is underperforming just a little over a year ago.
Sony has had more misses than hits like Helldivers 2 when it comes to live service, and certainly needs Bungie’s Marathon to land, especially after the multimillion-dollar Concord disaster. Even third-party exclusives, like Foamstars and Babylon’s Fall, have bombed in this generation.
That said, PlayStation does need a steady revenue stream from live service endeavors to help pump more funds into its pricey single-player games. Sony just needs to make better, smarter choices when it comes to games-as-a-service.
